The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-11-12
HISTORY OF TIE CRIME.
A Review of the Causes Leading to the Hay
market Massacre and tho Exents Following

sion OK civic events may again be wit
messed than the one having its latest outcome
to-day. The supposed absurdly theatrical dem
STATIONS with red banners and black that took
place in the streets of Chicago not two winters
ago. followed soon afterward by the pictur-
esque, yet ominous Sunday gatherings OF latter
donations, foreigners and demagogues on the
broad common the lake front. are now re-
called as the quick forerunners of secret cellar
drillings by hundreds of ignorant. fanatical RI
femen in the purlieus throughout the city.
Then came the cool, deliberate dy namite exper-
iments by carefully selected masked representa-
tives In the woods skirting the suburbs. Later
on, secluded in the quiet of downtown back
rooms. dark conclaves OK wild-idead but brainy,
inscriptions leaders eagerly discussed their
long coveted opportunity the just beginning de-
velopment of the workngman's concerted move
ment for q uniform eght-hour day.
How the gigantic, peaceful strikes were turned
into riots, how the entirs world was startled by
the blood-chilling bomb massacre in the Hay
market then the majestic State trial, the amaz
ing bravado of the American defendant, the
horribly grotesque marriage of another one of
the prisoners-svery detail of these strange oc-
currences and the extraordinary train succeed
ing, now presents Itself again il the whole
had passed but esterday.
The keynote of all of it is found in the plat
form Of the mysterious I. A. A.-International
Arbeiter tWorkingmen'sl Association-of which
August Spies and his seven co-defendants were
leading members and upholders In the Inter
national platform it is urged that ''the present
system under which property is owned by indi-
viduals should be destroyed, and that all capital
which has been produced by labor should be
tranformed into common property by force"
Eighty ''aroups" of this dangerous association
existed in the United States. chiefly at the
great industrial centers. Chicago alone being
the ill-starred possesor of seven. Only
a portion of the members were armed, yet the
number of this class in Chicago exceeded 5000.
every man of whom attended regular military
drills. had his own rife and revolver, and could
obtain dynamite and bombs for the asking. The
unarmed members of the groups were constantly
in contact with their armed brethren, and in
hearty sympathy with their purposes and their
principles. 1t was this compact, weil-disciplined
I. A A. that had for its organs three now noted
newspapers-the Arbeter Zeitung. the Alarm
and the Anarchist Excepting handsome, youth
full Louis Lingg, who, though taking conspicu-
GUS part, was a mere acting agent. each Of the
eight Haymarker defendants was directly
nected with one of these papers.
August Soies, keen, cynical Hessian, with
the subtle intellectual vigor Of am Iago, was ed
itor-in-chief of the Arbeiter. The jauuty dare
devil little Texan, Albert R. Parsons brother Of
a confederate general. presided over the Alarm.
At the head Of the Anarchist, George Engle, an
other Hessian, but of coarse, brutal type,
out-Heroded tho most blood thirsty utterances
of his compeers. While Sam Fielden, the Eng
ishman. sullen looking, shaggy and forbidding,
but as an agitator simply volcanic, and Oscar
Neebe. the polished. attractive German-Amer-
100
in other than journalistic branches of the proga-
ganda, they were, nevertheless, among the di-
rectors respectively of the Alarm and the Ar
better Zeitune The gaunt Bavarian, Michael
Schwab, was Spes's assistant editor, and his
feliow-country man, Adolph Fischer he of the
poisoned dagger, was the Arbeiter's head FORE
man.
Not one of these men-however they might
split hairs. could candidly deny that he was in.
strumental, to greater or less degree, in help
ing on the catastrophe at the Haymarket OF |
the legal guilt of each nothing need be said
further than that its certainty was put to tests
seldom. if ever. paralleled
During the long months preceding the bomb |
throwing, the defendants. one and all, were in
cessantly active in agitating and organizing in |
demonstrations" and experiments" Their |
speeches and articles fairly bristled with impas-
vide themselves with firearms and dynamite.
Specific instructions were given how to handle |
and the explosive and how to make bombs
and how to procure weapons. All this was
stated by the conspirators to be making ready
for the coming social revolution What was |
meant By social revolution" was not left to be
vaguely inferred, was the time when it was |
to be inaugurated dim uncertainty of the |
future. The revolution frequently de- |
fined in speech and writing q sudden, bloody, |
forcible upheaval of the right of private owner |
ship of property, then The bringing about of a |
state of society in which all property should be
held in common.
Incredible IS it may seem. the avowed pur-
pose to deluge the city in blood of the prop
erty-owning classes. first destroying the police |
and militia, who were derided as their special |
champions. The period of confusion developing |
from the mammoth strikes of the first Of May, |
1886. was definitely announced months before |
the time whom the fearful bolt should fall |
Pitiless was this programme. and difficult as |
a belief that's it ever was contemplated by men,
the facts stated were abundantly proven in |
court.
The diabolism was fully shared in by women
public demonstrations like the red-faa professions |
of ragamuffins with torches that attempted at |
night to enter the magnificent Board of |
Trade when the dedication festivities of |
the institution had, for the time being, trans
formed the huge building into scene OF social |
brilliance without local precedent. The re-
pusive, disappearing intruders Of both sexes
were sternIy forced back at the muzzlss of three
dozen police rsvolvers. In affairs like this the
dusky wife of Parsons asd other less desper-
ate women seemed in their proper element. OF
the many other queer outbreaks preceding the
Haymarkst tragedy the startling at the
time perhaps was the parade on Thanksgiving
day, when, in ridicule of President Clevelsnd's
proclamation. nearly a thousand uucouth men
and women of the slums, headed by banners of
black and red, traversed the choice residence
ayenues. wildly yalling and scofing NJ the we'll